An Oregon father allegedly drugged his daughter's 12-year-old friends with laced smoothies and subsequently watched as they drifted off to sleep during a sleepover, according to police.
Michael Meyden, 57, surrendered at the Clackamas County Jail on Wednesday after he was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges in connection with the sleepover on Aug. 26, Lake Oswego police said in a news release.
Officers responded to a hospital in August after three 12-year-old girls tested positive for benzodiazepine, a depressant that produces sedation and hypnosis. The girls told officers they were at a friend's house the night before for a sleepover in which Meyden, their friend's father, made mango smoothies and "insisted they drink them," according to a probable cause affidavit, FOX TV Stations reported.
The girls watched movies and did facials in the basement before Meyden allegedly pressured them to drink the laced smoothies.
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The smoothies had "tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top," the girls told police.
One girl attempted to decline the smoothie, but Meyden allegedly insisted she try it. She then said she had a few sips but did not drink much of the smoothie, and Meyden monitored her consumption and grew angry when he observed the girls drinking out of each other's drinks. He claimed he gave each of them a different colored reusable straw and insisted they drink out of their own cup.
Police said one girl reported feeling "woozy, hot and clumsy" after drinking the smoothie before falling over, blacking out and going into a "thick, deep sleep."
Another girl managed to stay awake and said she "could feel him watching her by his presence as she kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep," the document stated. She said she believed he was "doing tests to make sure we weren't awake," including by allegedly putting his finger under a girl's nose and twice moving a girl’s arm and body on the bed during his repeated trips to the basement where the girls were sleeping.
The girl stayed awake in fear that Meyden was "going to do something," the affidavit said. She texted her mother asking her to come and pick her up because she did not feel safe around Meyden.
"Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency," the girl texted her mother at 1:43 a.m. "I don't feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!"
The affidavit said the girl was eventually able to get in touch with a family friend who came and picked her up and woke up the girl’s parents, who notified the other girls' parents.
At 3 a.m., when the parents of the other girls drove to Meyden's house to pick them up, he resisted and asked them to return in the morning. The parents informed him that they would be bringing their children home immediately.
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One of the girls allegedly could not walk on her own and kept asking "what happened," which prompted her parents to take her to the hospital. When officers spoke to the girl less than 12 hours after she drank the smoothie, they said she "walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly," according to the affidavit.
Meyden was charged on Feb. 26, six months after the sleepover took place. He is facing six felony charges and three misdemeanors: three counts of causing another to ingest a controlled substance, three counts of application of a Schedule 4 controlled substance to another and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor.
He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court and posted $50,000 bail.
According to court records, Meyden and his wife divorced on Oct. 17, less than two months after the sleepover. They had owned a home in Lake Oswego at the time of the sleepover.
